One approach to knitting of seamless garments of this type is to employ rotary of unidirectional circular knitting in the leg and foot portions of the garment and to use reciprocatory knitting in most or all of the panty part of the garment to fashion the latter, i.e. to coursewise widen or narrow selected portions of the fabric as it is being knit, in order to shape the garment to achieve a better fit and also to enable more size variations. Reciprocatory knitting, however, possesses the disadvantage not only of requiring more machine time with consequent greater production expense, but also of practically limiting stitch choice to plain knitting, i.e. jersey. Thus, the accomplishment of pattern work in reciprocatorily knit areas of the fabric cannot be had. Additionally, the use of elastic yarns, e.g. Spandex, in reciprocatory knitting is almost impossible or at most impractical.
Further, in some instances reciprocatorily knit fashioned areas of fabric are directly connected to other reciprocatorily knit fashioned areas of fabric along gore lines along some portions of which the stitches are under considerable stress. The result is that these stitches are stretched and cause a rather open fabric thereadjacent. The stretched stitches also weaken the fabric. Examples of this type of fashioning are disclosed in the U.S. Pat. Nos. to Garrou et al 2,962,884; 3,109,300; and 3,109,301.
Still another approach to the knitting of seamless panty hose type garments is to knit a substantially cylindrical tube using unidirectional rotary knitting throughout, e.g. as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. to Johnson 3,673,821. While this method of making such a garment gives rise to manufacturing economies, it results in a garment having its volume of fabric poorly distributed in the panty part for acquiring a shape to properly fit the human form. In general, there is too much fabric in the crotch area of the garment and insufficient fabric in the rest of the panty part. Some of these objections can be overcome somewhat by the use of partial courses alternating with full courses in the panty part, with the partial courses stopping short of the crotch area of the garment. While this improves the fit to some extent, it requires cutting out or trimming the floated yarn at each end of the partial courses, which consequently increases the cost of manufacture. Futher, such partial courses cause certain areas of the fabric, i.e. the crotch area, to be of relatively thin or flimsy construction with a consequent undesirable esthetic result.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a seamless knit two-legged lower body garment, and method of knitting the same, which overcomes many of the aforedescribed disadvantages of prior constructions.
It is another object of this invention to provide a garment of the type described, and a method of knitting the same, which possesses economies of manufacture, as contrasted to such garments which are fashioned throughout all or most of the body part, while providing a better fit than one which is produced by unidirectional rotary knitting throughout.
It is another object of this invention to provide a garment of the type described, and a method of knitting the same, which does not require unidirectional rotary knit partial courses, which would require cutting out or trimming of floated yarns, in order to achieve a good fit.
It is another object of this invention to provide an improved garment of the type described, and a method of knitting the same, which permits the use of a variety of stitch constructions in most of the body part of the garment and also the use of elastic yarns in such parts, to facilitate the construction of fabrics which achieve a better fit of the garment.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved garment of the type described wherein the panty part can be shaped in the crotch area by the use of shortened and/or tightened stitches or by a combination of tuck and float stitches.